A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (A Mary Russell Mystery)

A friend recommended this series to me. Sometimes I like fun, quick reads. This fits the boat!
I like the youth and strength of Mary Russell's character, as well as, the solid and knowledgeable Sherlock at her side.
Thanks Laurie R King!

This is one of the most compelling Mary Russell book, not necessarily all the plot lines; but, the philosophy of the leader of the church. It's a most provoking book and also a most satisfying one as far as the two lead characters are concerned since they finally acknowledge their feelings for each other. All of Laurie Kings books about Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes are intriguing and multi-layered with lots of depth. She has achieved a most satisfying quality to the cases the two share and the research involved into the times are quite accurate.

Love is an underlying theme in this tale; love of status, love of money, love of people, love of God, and the final acknowledgement of love in all it's facets between Russell and Holmes.

The skill, the suspense, and the interaction of Holmes and Russell keeps one totally engaged and wondering how their inimitable skills and intuitive sensibilities will serve them in lives filled with danger and challenges.

Laurie King's writing fills me with wonder; she IS Holmes and Russell! Smart lady!

Not quite as good as The Beekeepers Apprentice but still both thought-provoking and fun to read. Like the original Sherlock Holmes stories, you don't want to look too closely at the plot. What makes this book so interesting is the development of Mary Russell as a character. We really feel like we're watching her grow up. There are a lot of feminist topics that are presented intelligently. I enjoyed the lectures much like I enjoyed the ideas presented in the DaVinci Code. The ideas are offered for consideration and then it's back to the adventure. I'm encouraging some of my bright teenage students to discover Mary Russell as a worthy depiction of what a bright, capable young woman can be like.

I found this to be a thoroughly entertaining book. It was an easy read, but also provided an intelligent look at life around that time, without coming across as purposefully 'educational'.

I am completely captivated by Mary, and her relationship with not only Sherlock but other men of the period, and the scraps and scrapes she gets herself into.

I am a fan!

I discovered this series by Laurie King by accident. However, I have since bought and read every one in the series. Though I had to suspend my disbelief just a bit to imagine an older Sherlock Holmes involved with a young girl as his "apprentice," I quickly got into the story and enjoyed a glimpse of a "real" Holmes.

Our heroine Mz. Russell flexes her muscles and for the most part independently takes on a powerful and mysterious enemy. She must draw on her natural abilities, the unique skills taught her by Holmes and her newfound wealth. A wonderful read with a surprise at the end. This surprise makes the anticipation of reading the next book(s) in this series even more enticing than expected.

I have loved the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, so I was a little cautious about Laurie R. King's work. This was the second in her series of works about the partnership of a young Mary Russell with a retired Sherlock Holmes, and the first full-length book of hers I have read. Her construction of the mystery they solve is very good, and the character development is also good. Mary Russell is a worthy partner for the famous sleuth.
I found it absorbing, and will read more of this series.

Wow, what an utter disappointment after the first book, the Beekeeper's Apprentice! I read the latter while on holiday in the remotest of villages in Italy, with no proper internet connection anywhere near there. But I was so enthusiastic about the Beekeeper's Apprentice that I absolutely _had_ to keep reading! So I spent an entire evening trying to get A Monstrous Regiment first on my phone and then on my Kindle, all via the slowest GPRS connection ever, with numerous interruptions. So happy I was when it was finally there and I could start reading! My disappointment was all the greater for it. This story... Well, it never even takes off, really. It just plods along. Superficial doesn't even begin to describe it. The central themes (feminism and theology) weren't remotely interesting, and were treated in such a shallow way I was bored out of my brain after the first few pages -- and it only got worse from there. The 'bad guy' comes along, and the entire mystery is already unravelled at two-thirds of the book, after which the 'mystery' (which was never really mysterious anyway) still continues for another so many (too many) pages. I'm quite surprised to see that so many people actually liked this book. I felt the contrast with the first book could not have been bigger. Boring, and almost devoid of a story, let alone a gripping one. I'm in doubt about whether or not to ever try another one of the Mary Russell series.

Laurie King is a fantastic writer, with the whole package, great plots, interesting characters, suspense and lovely writing. I always love her books especially the ones about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

Not a great follow-up book to "The Beekeepers Apprentice". Holmes is absent way too much and the relationship that some may find highly romantic between Mary and Holmes seems unconvincing no matter how intellectually compatible they may be. Like the first book it becomes apparent to me after reading that Sherlock Holmes is just a gimmick holding the book to an impossible standard and another similar fictional character should have been put in his place but that wouldn't sell as many books would it? Did anyone else find it ironic to have Doyle criticized by characters in the book?

"A Monstrous Regiment of Women" was enjoyable at times, but quite a let down from The Beekeeper's Apprentice. The first book was a fun coming of age story of a bright young orphan fighting the strictures of society and of her malevolent aunt. Mary Russel was an engaging character, smart and scrappy. And the interaction between Russel and Homes as her mentor was fun and adventurous. With this second book, though, we loose much of that. Now Russel is 21 and no longer under the restrictions of her guardian. She is rich and able to do whatever she wills, and much of the fun of following her as she grows up is lost as she meanders through this muddled follow up to the charming original.

In this book King looses her sense of pacing as she lingers on themes of drug addiction, women's rights and religion, as Russel is introduced to a young, charismatic and influential female preacher. We are set to wonder if the preacher is a valiant defender of women, or a clever and murderous villain. Unfortunately Holmes is largely absent in this book, and when he is there he is, to a certain extent, Russel's lackey and romantic obsession, in spite of their near 40 year age difference. As to the romance, I say, "Blech." I'm not happy or comfortable in the transition of Holmes from mentor/father figure to romantic interest. It creeps me out in the real world and in this fictional one, too. But, as much as that romance failed to engage me there was a much bigger issue for me in the end.

Spoilers.

In the Sherlock Holmes stories Holmes solves mysteries through brilliantly obsessive reason and investigation, resulting in natural explanations even in the cases where the events initially seemed to have a supernatural origins, as in The Hound of the Baskervilles. King decides to toss that detective novel tradition to the curb, and arbitrarily replace it with the option of miracles and "God did it." If King decided to expand her milieu to Agatha Christie stories she might well have the Ten Little Indians turn out to have been smote by God. Please don't misunderstand me, though, I like supernatural stories. I read a lot of them, including ones about supernatural detectives. But those fit into specific genres, genres that are distinctly outside of the Sherlock Holmes universe.

King knows she's going far afield in the Holmes universe with her romance between Russel and Holmes, and with her "god did it" answer to a locked room mystery. Whereas in the first book she brilliantly wove Russel and Holmes together in a way that made Holmes newly come alive yet was still consistent with the classic character, in this book she tears all of that down. To try to set up the foundation for this jarring mess she has the characters talk out the problems. For the "God did it" mess, she awkwardly invokes the classic case of Arthur Conan Doyle credulously falling for the Cottingley Fairies hoax, where some little girls posed in photos with drawings cut out from a book of fairies (Doyle co-exists with Holmes in King's universe). King has Holmes angrily reacting to news of Doyle's gullibility, as if King is saying, yes, supernatural fairies, now those would be ridiculous in a Holmes story, but setting up a contrast for Russel, who's' character is supposed to be a bible scholar as well as at least nominally Jewish, to witness a live miracle and conclusively determine that what she saw, as confirmed by another character, really was an actual miracle by God.

I can't tell why Russel insists on inserting a romance with a father figure, or why she insists on inserting supernatural explanations into the Holmes universe. It is a clearly calculated move on her part, but it guts the standard for a detective novel. By all means, insert some interesting aspects of religion and biblical scholarship as story elements, as she did, but when she made "God did it" one of the answers to the mysteries in the book she ruined one of the fun parts about detective and mystery novels, trying to figure out who did it. When you add "God did it," "in the locked room," and "with a miracle" to the line up of suspects and possible methods there's really no point in trying to follow the plot and figure it out for yourself. So, as much as I liked the first book, I'm disappointed and I'm done with this series.

This is the second book in the Mary Russell series. Mary has graduated from Oxford and with the advent of her birthday, is about to come into her inheritance. With this she will finally gain independence from her aunt and can live her life as she wants. Taking her first steps, she runs into an old Oxford friend, struggling with a fiance who is shell-shocked from the Great War and is suffering from a drug addiction. Mary convinces Holmes to help and in the meantime, her friend introduces her to the charismatic leader of a women’s organization/charity/religious institution, Margery. Mary is intrigued by some of Margery’s ideas about women and religion, and given her background in theology and dissertation involving women and religion, she is pulled into Margery’s sphere, offering to help tutor and educate her. Her friend has a narrow escape from a possibly deadly encounter, and after this, Mary hears of other deaths of wealthy women associated with the church, with each of them leaving a legacy to the church. She has her own encounter with an assailant that seems to be after Margery and sees an apparently miraculous event involving Margery. While she conducts her investigation, Holmes helps out as he can, but is respectful of her. The book comes to an intriguing conclusion that will change the course of the series going forward.

The continuation of The Beekeeper's Apprentice; Mary Russell meets through her friend Veronica Beaconsfield, Margaret Childe who leads “The New Temple of God”, a charismatic sect for women. But, could New Temple be a cover for something sinister. Several women have died and left the money to the Temple. With the help of Holmes is Mary investigating the temple by going undercover.

I discovered a couple of years after I read the first book that there were more books published after the first book. But, they had not like the first book been translated into Swedish, but I decided to buy this one the rest despite the fact that I usually didn’t read that many books in English. One can say that this was the start of me reading English books. So thank you Laurie R. King.

Mary Russell is older now and her “relationship” with Sherlock Holmes is at a crossroad, will they continue as they are or will they change the nature of their relationship. Well, that’s the question that this book deals with together with the “The New Temple of God” investigation that will put Mary’s life in danger.

Just like the first book is the story superb. I’ve read the book several times, still amazingly good.

Quirky thriller set in 1920's England about a women's religious and self help society called the Temple of God that may not quite be what it seems. Four of its wealthy benefactors have died under mysterious circumstances. Eager to investigate and intrigued by its charismatic leader is Mary Judith Russell, protege of Sherlock Homes, Oxford religion scholar and newly minted heiress. Holmes and Russell eventually do solve the case, but not without some hair-raising, life-threatening and indeed life-altering escapades. Mary's transition from gawky teen to accomplished woman is now complete. The period novel-correct romance is touching and the happy ending is tempered somewhat poignantly by the all too believable later fates of some of the other characters. For fans of Holmes himself, there is plenty of snarky dialogue, dress up, slapstick and well staged action sequences. The second novel published in the series, this is a worthy addition.

I was not disappointed with the second novel in this (so far) intelligent series by Laurie R. King. In this novel, the author does an absolutely superb job of using the mystery to move the issues that the book contemplates. I would not go so far as to say that this is "message fiction" but the author certainly uses this to deal with issues that, while historical, nevertheless persist.

Plot summary

Our feisty protagonist, Mary Russell, is on the very of moving into legal adulthood and obtaining access to the fortune of her deceased parents and at the same time, is nearing the end of her Oxford studies. While visiting a friend, Mary comes to meet Margery Childe, the charismatic leader of a local Christian Temple and suffragette and feminist. Mary is intrigued by Margery's charisma and, as a Jewish scholar, Mary is interested in Margery's interpretation of the Old Testament. Her interest quickly turns to suspicion as four of the women who attend at the temple are found dead under mysterious circumstances. Is Margery a mystic with a true connection to God or is she a charlatan using the rich women of the city to accomplish her personal goals.

My Take

This book dealt with a topic that I find to be of particular interest. While there is mystery to be unraveled, it at times serves as a subtext to the exploration of feminism and religion. Mary Russell is herself a woman and scholar of Judaism and she find a companion in Margery Childe, an untrained and self taught scholar. The author uses the text of scripture to show how women should be treated equally within Christianity. She also refers to some interpretation that is intriguing. I do not know if the author created this as a device for the book or it is based on real, scholarly research. I am quite interested to find out.

On a personal note, as a Christian and father of two daughters, I am interested and invested in how religion treats women. I have always believed in the equal treatment of men and women and within religious circles, I have been called, usually with derision, a feminist. Insofar as a feminist is any person that believes and stands for equal treatment of sexes, I can be identified as such. This attitude has always puzzled me. It just so happens I attend a church that was founded by and is run by a woman. It seems to me that this would not have been possible or accept but for, at least in part, the efforts of feminists through the ages. This book in my opinion make a convincing argument on how a some forms of feminism benefited the church and as a result, society. Anyone who reads this review and can recommend some books that deal with the convergence of feminism and religion, please do so!

I think that some readers of the first book, will find this one to be a disappointment. The story is mostly about Mary Russell and features Sherlock Holmes very little. The story was really meant to allow Mary to come into her own. I was not at all disappointed with the story focus but I can appreciate how some may dislike it.

In the end, I would give it 4.5 stars. The author has taken the overall plot in a direction that I think is rather absurd. To mention it would be a mild spoiler so I will avoid any further mention.

Can this Book Stand Alone

Yes BUT I would recommend reading number 1 first. It does an excellent job of creating and developing the characters that I think would be doing yourself a disservice by skipping it.

Final Thoughts

Another impressive offering from this author. In my opinion, the social commentary is interesting and while, the novel's setting is historical, the issues are ring true today. This is not for the reader who loves a breezy mystery or a faced paced read. The pacing is deliberate, there is substantial character development and there are issues to make the reader ponder. If this sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend this series.

Content Advisories

It is difficult to find commentary on the sex/violence/language content of book if you are interested. I make an effort to give you the information so you can make an informed decision before reading. *Disclaimer* I do not take note or count the occurrences of adult language as I read. I am simply giving approximations. When reviewing language, mild obscenities are words like, s***, hell or damn. Religious exclamations are words such as Christ or Jesus when used as profanity.

Scale 1 - Lowest 5 - Highest

Sex - 1.5

Kissing. That would be about it. There is some whispered discussion about some sexual dalliances but overall the content is quite chaste.

Language - 2

The language remains mild. Most of the characters are religious and frown on such things a swearing.

Violence - 2.5

There is several murder but not are described graphically. Several women are beaten and some rather seriously. Another is threatened with violence. The violence tends not be disturbing.

Technically, this is the second Mary Russell book, but it's the one I began the series with. I started with this book because the mystery involving a church run entirely by women really interested me. Plus, I had been told that King does a great job of incorporating women's history into her story-lines. This really intrigued me, as I was curious to see what aspects of the 1920's era King would incorporate into the narrative.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women begins with Mary about to turn 21, an age she has been eager to reach, as it means assuming full control over her inheritance. In addition to her birthday, Mary is also close to receiving her degree in theology from Oxford. So, when a friend from the university joins a church run exclusively by women Mary is fascinated. Agreeing to attend one of the sermons, Mary acts as a skeptical observer watching Margery Childe, the leader of the church. Mary quickly finds herself talked into returning to the church on a regular basis in order to teach Margery another language. During these lessons, Mary begins to notice some odd occurrences. Slowly, the deaths of several church members (written off as accidents) begin to surface, along with strange reports of Margery miraculously healing herself from extensive injuries. All of which leads Mary to investigating the church and it's leader.

Mary was pretty kick-ass in this one. She spends a lot of the book working by herself on the case with Sherlock Holmes only popping in and out of the narrative until close to the end. This is largely due to the fight they have near the beginning of the novel, but also because both Mary and Holmes are at an odd moment in their relationship and neither seem to know what to do about it. I loved Mary's internal struggle around Holmes. It really fit her character to be so up in the air concerning the potential shift in the dynamics of their relationship. Holmes' own realization that Mary is seeing him differently is pretty on-key as well. Aside from all this, Mary also goes through a pretty traumatizing experience that really allows the strength of her character to shine. I was pretty impressed with how King used that experience to incorporate one of Holmes demons into the narrative without making it feel contrived or forced.

My only problem with the book came from how, at times, it lagged. Mostly, this was when the theological discussions would get a little too dense for me, but things generally picked back up quick. Really, this was just an awesome read. Highly recommended.

Laurie R. King, ‘editor’ of the Mary Russell memoirs (which she received, curiously and mysteriously, via a trunk of unknown origins) has seen the first of Mary’s manuscripts published. After the publication of ‘The Beekeeper's Apprentice’, King received what she believes to be correspondence from Ms. Russell in the form of a postcard. Investigations into the mysterious author of these memoirs is still ongoing, and King puts a call out for any help in locating her whereabouts.

Meanwhile, in this – the second memoir of Mary Russell’s – ‘A Monstrous Regiment of Women’ was first published in 1995, the second book in ‘Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes’ mystery series.

It’s 1921 and Mary Russell is turning 21 and coming into her inheritance – the considerable business holdings of her late father and real estate of her late mother’s will now officially, legally be Mary’s and out of her dreadful guardian Aunt’s hands. At the same time as she is becoming independently wealthy, and graduating from Oxford with honours in theology and chemistry, Mary’s relationship with the ten-years retired detective Sherlock Holmes is becoming increasingly confusing. That she is his apprentice and he her mentor is never under any doubt – but Mary wonders if she is leaning towards a more amorous relationship with Holmes.

During this confusing time Mary bumps into an old Oxford friend, Veronica Beaconsfield who reaches out to Mary for help. Her ex-fiancé, one Miles Fitzwarren has come home from the Great War a broken, shell-shocked young man with a drug addiction to heroin that Veronica ‘Ronnie’ hopes Mary can have some suggestions for remedy and recuperation.

Ronnie also introduces Mary to her latest ‘do good’ work, for the New Temple of God and its charismatic leader, Margery Childe. In the wake of WWI and the nation’s “surplus women” who find their usefulness during the war effort no longer required, Childe is campaigning for a different suffragette, starting with the Catholic Church’s exclusion of women. The Temple also does considerable good working in providing education services to women, and providing shelters for battered women and children.

Margery Childe is quite a force, verging on a cult leader for all her charisma. But something doesn’t quite sit right with Mary, and when female members of the Temple start dying, she takes up her own investigation independent of Holmes…

This is the second ‘Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes’ book, and while it doesn’t have quite the same panache and punch as the first (which is also considerably longer than this second instalment) Laurie R. King did manage to have me on the edge of my seat by the end of the book – anticipating both the action, and emotional pay-off that Russell and Holmes go through.

It is worth noting that in this book, Russell finds herself on her own for the majority of the plot. She and Holmes are at an awkward and critical junction in their relationship – there’s a spark between them, that runs far deeper than mentor-apprentice, but neither seem willing to budge and risk their valuable friendship for what could be disastrous intimacy. So Holmes is out of the picture for the majority of this book, and it’s perhaps not quite as enthralling for his lack…

But King makes up for it with her witty, dry prose and a whodunit that’s frightening and captivating. I particularly liked her wry sense of humour of Russell’s description of the leader Margery Childe: "She was a feminist and she had a sense of humour, an appealing combination that was regrettably rare …"

This being set in 1921, there’s also a running-gag about Holmes’s biographer (Arthur Conan-Doyle) embarrassing himself (and Holmes, by extension) with an article he wrote around the Cottingley Fairies affair. This is hilarious, and just one example of how King so beautifully blends myth, history and reality so seamlessly into this story of a fictional character’s real-life counterpart living out a fictitious continued existence beyond his retirement/finale.

I also really liked this book for the emotional pay-off. Mary Russell goes through a lot over the course of this investigation, and by book’s end I could definitely mark out a ‘before’ and ‘after’ in her character. That’s also true of her relationship with Holmes: "For me, for always, the paramount organ of passion was the mind. Unnatural, unbalanced, perhaps, but it was true: Without intellect, there could be no love."

This was a great book for marrying high-stakes action with the emotional build-up of Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes as more than just partner detectives. I am now more invested than ever in this fabulous series, and I can’t wait to see where Russell and Holmes venture next!

My infatuation with Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes continues in this second book in Laurie R. King's series. First of all, A Monstrous Regiment of Women is a marvelous title that sticks in the mind like a burr. The title comes from Bible thumper John Knox, the equal opportunity hatemonger. (From what I've read, I doubt the man ever cracked a smile.) Knox was notorious for his misogyny, and King has rounded up quite a collection of quotes from Knox and other men with similar beliefs to head each chapter in the book. It wasn't unusual for me to read the quote at the beginning of a chapter and have some unladylike response to it before diving headfirst back into the story. Furthermore, the quotes aren't there just for decoration or to cause blood pressure spikes-- they follow the narrative of the story, and I soon became quite eager to see what the next quote would be.

Mary is now a young woman who's about to come into a very large sum of money, and she struggles a bit with the burden of responsibility this places upon her. She also has a newborn sense of freedom and begins to think about the relationship she has with Holmes. This book (as well as the first one, The Beekeeper's Apprentice) is so much more than a recitation of facts about cases the two detectives have solved, and this is all due to Mary's narration. She focuses on personal matters and on the people involved, so readers can really get a sense of whom the characters are and why they are involved.

Mary has the lion's share of the scenes in this book, but Holmes' presence is felt throughout. Never once did I forget that this man is "the world's greatest detective," but it is refreshing to see him in a totally different light. Mary is his equal in mind and in heart, and I love watching the relationship between these two growing into something very, very special.

Just in case you get the impression that A Monstrous Regiment of Women is a mere character study, think again. The case is an intriguing one that is difficult to sort out, and Mary is in very real danger towards the end. In fact, I think I was reading so fast that my eyeballs almost caught fire.

I love the world that Laurie R. King has created. I now have all the books, and I fully intend to savor each and every one. If you have yet to sample this series, you have a wonderful treat in store for you. In order to achieve the greatest amount of enjoyment, I would suggest that you read the books in order. The way the relationship between Holmes and Mary Russell unfolds is a delight.

SPOILER ALERT:
Wow, what an excellent book. The story grabbed by attention from the very beginning and didn't let go until the end. There was some great banter between Mary and Holmes throughout. And the scenes where poor Mary was forcibly given heroin were unnerving, upsetting, chilling and riveting, keeping me locked onto the pages, maybe especially because I have a close relative who struggled with the same addiction and I'm aware of the disastrous consequences which can follow. I was actually sick to my stomach reading those couple of chapters, suffering right along with Mary.

Also, the parts discussing the way men, throughout history, have tweaked passages of the Bible to denigrate and diminish a woman's role in life, society and the church were fascinating. I've read a little about this in the past and it always proves an interesting topic. I'm assuming the Hebrew translations are truth. Interesting points made. I can't wait to read the next book. Incidentally, I'm one of those in favor of the romantic elements in Mary and Holmes' relationship. Perfectly believable in the right circumstances.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women isn't my favorite of the Holmes/Russell novels, but that's a little like saying dark isn't my favorite type of chocolate. It's still chocolate, and therefore by definition far better than many another thing.

Mary Russell has graduated from Oxford, is about to turn twenty-one and achieve separation from her horrible aunt ... and her joy at these two events is dampened a bit by the peculiarities of her evolving relationship with her mentor Holmes, never an easy person to deal with at the best of times. It is while Mary is, literally, on the run from him that a friend from school runs into her by chance, and she needs help. Not financial, by any means, but in most other ways: her fiancé has come home from the war in something less than the shape she saw him off in, and there's also something going on at a church she has begun to frequent... Mary, the logical-minded theology scholar, raises eyebrows at the "church", but she agrees to help, if for no other reason than that her partnership with Holmes is being challenged by an extraordinary circumstance and she needs occupation. Preferably some occupation in which she can prove herself to be independent of her iconic mentor. She is drawn into the orbit of Margery Childe, the proto-feminist mystic head of the New Temple of God, and her expectations are upended. The obvious chicanery she anticipated is nowhere to be seen, and instead Childe turns out to be a small woman of tremendous charisma - and, perhaps, something else.

Russell is on her own through much of MRoW. Holmes swoops in to bear off the shell-shocked and drug-addicted fiancé to an Edwardian rehab facility, and appears here and there for the rest of the story, but this is mostly Russell's investigation. She grows and expands in this book, not all in positive ways as the story takes a wild left turn into kidnapping and drug addiction. It's painful, and difficult - and melodramatic and improbable - and Laurie R. King sells it.